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The Big Parade on 10/1/13

With a 64-page digibook and a documentary on Vidor! Can't wait to put my hands on it.

My copy of Big Parade just arrived today. I didn't see this mentioned anywhere, but the booklet that comes with it has nearly 50 pages of Kevin Brownlow writing on the background of the film. We need to encourage Warners to do more releases like this and convince them that beyond the obvious need for these silents, there is an actual want from consumers. I would encourage anyone considering this purchase to do it and think of your purchase as another vote towards possible similar releases of Greed, The Crowd, The Wind...

jwd5275 wrote:My copy of Big Parade just arrived today. I didn't see this mentioned anywhere, but the booklet that comes with it has nearly 50 pages of Kevin Brownlow writing on the background of the film. We need to encourage Warners to do more releases like this and convince them that beyond the obvious need for these silents, there is an actual want from consumers. I would encourage anyone considering this purchase to do it and think of your purchase as another vote towards possible similar releases of Greed, The Crowd, The Wind...

The packaging is really great. Much better than the books that accompany, say, Citizen Kane or Mutiny On The Bounty. I caught a bit of what seemed like the restoration on TCM the other day and it looked wonderful, so I can't wait to watch the blu ray.

The Brownlow piece is pretty good, agreed. The film itself is nothing to be sniffed at either and Carl Davis' score was pitch perfect, close to avant-garde, I thought, during some of the war scenes. Personally, I prefer William Wellman's Wings and especially Raymond Bernard's Wooden Crosses but I'm very grateful to WB to release this film in a fabulous-looking resto and better contextualising material (i.e. Brownlow essay) than I expected. God, I hope it sells so well they won't think twice about doing The Crowd next.

Could anyone who actually has The Big Parade blu-ray confirm if it's region-free please?

Blu-ray.com about The Big Parade, including caps: http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Big-P ... 54/#Review" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm joining the fingercrossing choir in hoping that The Crowd is next. Any indside news about that release?

Jonathan S wrote:Could anyone who actually has The Big Parade blu-ray confirm if it's region-free please?

I can confirm regions a and b both work with this disc. It looks and sounds great. Everyone with a remote interest in silent film should support and buy this blu-ray.

Jonathan S wrote:Could anyone who actually has The Big Parade blu-ray confirm if it's region-free please?

Just confirmed it! You're good.

Many thanks to you both. I expected it would be region-free, being Warner, though I wondered if the licensing of Davis' score would affect it. (I initially saw The Big Parade in the 1931 music & effects reissue, televised by the BBC several years before the 1985 Photoplay/Davis version.) I expect sales may increase with next year's big centenary...

This looks beautiful.
The Big Parade

Does the blu-ray include "The man who made the movies: King Vidor"?

No, which is odd because that was announced as one of the bonus features a few months ago.

I'm surprised Warner hasn't been forced to recall the DVD (or maybe they have). There's apparently a sticker on the front promising a 64-page book, even though that's only included with the Blu-ray.

Gregory wrote:No, which is odd because that was announced as one of the bonus features a few months ago.

Too bad, I had always hoped to watch that documentary. Could it be that they lost the rights to it on these past few months?

I thought the motion on THE BIG PARADE (Vidor, 1925) Blu-ray looked a bit suspect (choppy). Does anyone have a source for the film's original framerate?

imdb (pinch of salt, I know) says 24fps.

The Blu-ray is authored progressively (not interlaced, like Criterion have unfortunately plumped for on their non-24fps silents) but the frame cadence is all over the shop. I measured 5R1R4R4R1R (for the first 15 mins or so), then 5RR5R3R2R for a while, before settling on 5R5R5R5R. (A number refers to the number of consecutive unique frames, an R indicates a repeat frame). What's that all about? Was the film shot at multiple framerates?

I'm a little confused by your measurments. If this is a 1080p/24 disc then surely each second requires 24 frames total? Your first two measurements only amount to 20 frames (15 unique, 5 repeat). Only your final measurement is 24fps (20 unique, 4 repeat). How is that possible? Can a Blu-ray be both interlaced and progressive at different points?

It's not at all interlaced (not one single frame has lines).

The patterns I measured are what loops. I have no idea why some add up to 20 and some add up to 24, but the ones that add up to 20 will simply fill the 24p nature of the Blu with the next 4 frames of the loop. I can't understand any of it.

That sounds idiotic. The first 3 seconds must look something like this:

5R1R4R4R1R4
1R1R4R4R1R5R1R
4R4R1R5R1R4

What a mess!

Aye, hence the choppiness to the motion, which I'm very attuned to having mucked around with lots of experiments in this area. It's not horrendous, and most people probably wouldn't notice it, but I was shocked when I worked out the various cadences, because it could probably look a tad better than it does (for the first 15 minutes anyhow). I'd love to find out why it's like it is.

Well if it was done in an attempt to preserve various frame rates it doesn't look like they've done a very good job of it.

I'd put my money on that the film is supposed to play 5R5R5R5R throughout but someone messed it up.

peerpee wrote:What's that all about? Was the film shot at multiple framerates?

I recall reading an interview (perhaps from American Cinematographer) with John Arnold where he lamented the very tight shooting schedule on The Big Parade, as several sequences fell short of his personal standards. I wonder if this could have resulted in an unintended framerate discrepancy in the film.

peerpee wrote:...It's not horrendous, and most people probably wouldn't notice it, but I was shocked when I worked out the various cadences, because it could probably look a tad better than it does (for the first 15 minutes anyhow)...

The choppiness was quite noticeable to me when the film played on TCM a number of weeks back, especially during any kind of lateral camera movement. I had assumed this was due to the decision to repeat frames to compensate for an original frame-rate of less than 24 fps, but the result was more distracting than with any other silent film I've seen broadcast or on Blu-ray.

peerpee wrote:What's that all about? Was the film shot at multiple framerates?

However it was shot, it surely wasn't intended to be projected at multiple framerates. Those cadences you identified seem like they'd look odd even if they were consistent throughout the film.

I noticed it especially during the war sequence in the woods. The soldiers movements are visibly affected by the choppiness, so it means that it stays visible far away in the movie (the sequence is around 1h50-2hr, I think).
However, I found it far from being unwatchable, but I'm no expert when it comes to choppiness on silent movies.

I don't have this release yet - does Kevin Brownlow's booklet make any reference to frame-rates? In view of his involvement, I wouldn't be surprised if variations in the speed were his aesthetic choices, as he has made such decisions with other silents.

In this Nitrateville thread (one of several addressing "jittery" motion on blu-rays of non-24fps silents) David Shepard even suggests that "small internal speed variations" are "one of his [KB's] hobbies". As other posters mention, there is historical precedent for this; projectionists in the silent era sometimes did vary the frame-rate in certain sequences (and not just to get home earlier!)

The discussion there mainly centres on the Cohen transfer of The Thief of Bagdad (which also needed to conform to a pre-existing Carl Davis score) though The Big Parade has also been criticised for jerky motion. Some members blame it all on progressive transfers but (as on this forum) not everyone irritated by the problem is in that camp. In another thread moderator Christopher Jacobs, reviewing Kino's blu-ray of Nosferatu, reports, "a slight jerky effect whenever there is motion on the screen."

If anyone has the parallel DVD release of The Big Parade, does this also exhibit the same flaw? I'm not qualified to comment on the technical aspects of all this but I do know I'm extremely sensitive to jerky motion, whatever the cause. I'd be willing to sacrifice some photographic quality for a smoother appearance. But perhaps it would be mastered in the same way and have extra complications arising from NTSC encoding?